The Darkest of Winters: Session #6

“Fly? Anyone can fly a plane, it’s easy. Landing it in one piece, now that’s a might bit trickier.” –Renee Black, clarifying her piloting skills.

“That reminds me why they tell you to put your head between your knees when assuming a crash position, it’s so you can kiss your ass goodbye.” –Jessy Hannaford, remembering basic flight safety.

The truck sped down the roadway at a not-so-blazing-fast 30mph, it’s progress slowed by the numerous abandoned vehicles littering the road, which Riley swerved around without much difficulty.

About 40 minutes into the journey Jessy spied several motorcycles in the distance behind them closing fast, and yelled as much in warning to Jamie, who relayed it through the cage mesh window to the group up front, Riley briefly considered stopping to let them pass, but decided it would be best to keep moving, “just in case.”

Minutes later the lead motorcycle, a police model complete with side car, pulled up 20 or so feet behind the group, lights flashing and turned on its siren, the leather clad punk driving it, throwing the truck 2 middle fingers briefly, before the passenger in the side car announced over a bull horn to turn over the women, mutts, and guns, and they’ll let the rest of them go free.

Shaking his head in disbelief Riley yelled back for Jessy to “give’em an answer in a language they’ll understand,” and poured on the speed. Jessy smiled, yelled back a wise crack to Riley about how “Heather should moon them in that case, but this should do just as well,” grabed a fist sized object from his inner jacket pocket, screamed “grenade!”and let it fly.

(Everyone else around the table nodded in approval at his bluff, cheering when a critical success on his throwing roll allowed him to smash the passenger right between the eyes with the offensive projectile.) This cheering, (in and out of game) was cut short when the motorcycle violently exploded in a ball of flame and shrapnel, leaving a nice mess in the road 3 of the other bikes hit, and wiped out from; the rest narrowly swerving to avoid it.

(A short out of game interrogation began from the rest of the players regarding Jessy “pulling a grenade out of his ass.” This is ended when I let them know he pocketed it during the first adventure off one of the racist militia pukes bodies, and had passed me a note during that time stating as much. Jessy’s player also mentioned he was planning on using it during the previous zombie convergence when he was injured to “go out in a blaze of glory” but Heather wouldn’t abandon him like he told her to, so he could.)

Everyone else, the bikers included were shocked by this overwhelming display of firepower, the swarm of bikes falling back by a good 100 feet (30 meters) or so. The brief respite from the assault ended when the group noticed the bikes parting to either side of the roadway, letting a armored bank van (the kind used to transport money) pass between them. Covered in gang graffiti and the front grille stained with blood, the vehicle simply rammed its way through abandoned vehicles in its path, slowly, but inexorably closing the distance between them.

Telling them it was the only grenade he had, Jessy un-slung his AK and waited for the van to close, hoping he could knock out a front tire and disable the vehicle before it ran them off the road.

Meanwhile Heather leaned out of the passenger window and fired off a few rounds from her lever action rifle at the armored van, which did little beyond raise sparks, and slightly discolor the passenger side window.

The swarm of bikes scattered and pulled in front of the armored van to come up behind and beside the heroes truck, gangers unloading with pistols and a few sub-machine guns (smg’s) missing mostly, but a few bullets finding their way into the back, where a bag of kibble a couple of the dogs and a water jug were quickly holed, Jamie tossing Tommy to the truck bed and covering him with her body.

Riley screamed for everyone to “Hang on tight and try not to piss yourselves!” and braked suddenly after swerving around an overturned bus. The two motorcycles right behind the truck slammed themselves into it’s rear, one of the bikers launched from his bike into Jessy, where a brutal melee ensued.

As the rest of the bikers zipped past the truck, Heather unloaded several rounds of flechettes at them from Renee’s shotgun, taking out a biker with each shot, Renee firing with her handgun, (a Sig Sauer p226 in .40 caliber) past Riley to kill two more.

As the truck sped back up, Jessy was locked in mortal combat with a wiry biker that seemed hopped up on PCP and all but ignored Jessy’s knee to his groin and follow up fist to the jaw, responded with a stunning head butt and tried to yank Jessy’s handgun from it’s shoulder holster. The dogs in back growled and surged forward a solid toothed mass, foaming at their mouths to get at the attacker, or just perhaps to get away.

Back up front, Riley spotted an overpass a couple hundred feet up the road, its underside hidden in shadow, with what he thought was movement spotted up top near a burned out car. Having little other choice Riley floored the gas and aimed for the right hand lane, swerving at the last second into the left hand one, hoping to throw off any overhead attacks.

Meanwhile in the back, the punk managed to draw Jessy’s handgun (a standard colt .45 1911) and was readying it to shoot as Tommy fired wildly with his newly acquired .22 revolver. The sudden swerving of the truck however spoiled the aim of both aggressors; the punks shot missing to tear a fist sized a hole in the trucks wooden side panel, Tommy’s shot hitting his uncle painfully in the side. (Fortunately it was a .22 so only did a couple points damage which I ruled was caused by it ricocheting off one of the .45?s clips stored along side its holster on his side.)

The scene plunged briefly into blackness as the truck hurdled under the overpass, a loud thump echoing through the interior as something solid landed on top of the vehicle as it exited the underpass, denting the roof in a good inch or more. (multiple enemies jumped from the overpass, some splattering onto the road behind them, not that any of the group noticed this) Jamie, quickly fired her pistol up into the roof, hoping to dislodge the attacker, as Tommy joined in with Jamie’s gunfire right before the swarm of dogs dragged the punk to the floor, buying Jessy enough time to grab up his Ak-47 and place a quick 2 round burst through the bikers skull, killing him instantly.

From up front the overheat warning light blinked on and curl of steam began to rise from the radiator as the armored van filled the trucks side mirrors, rapidly closing the distance, a ganger sporting a hot pink mow-hawk leaning out of the passenger side window and firing at the truck with a battered Mp 5 smg, managing to lodge a bullet solidly into Renee’s back, sending her smashing forward into the dashboard, blood covering her lips and making her next few words unintelligible.

Riley yelled to Heather that "Renee’s been lung shot" (judging by the blood coming from her mouth) and, “Needs a real doctor pronto or it’s all over for her!” causing Heather to give Renee a tearful look, and swear to “make those bastards pay!” before crawling out of the passenger window and onto the roof of the truck.

In the back, Jessy used the now dead bikers body as cover from the smg fire, the unknown assailant on the roof collapsing and oozing putrescent blood through the bullet holes Jamie and Tommy caused, while Tommy hid behind the bags of pet food and the bullet riddled bodies of two dogs.

* * * * *

Will Renee survive her gunshot wound? Will Heather “make them pay” or be forced to send them a bill from the afterlife? Will Riley succeed in keeping the damaged truck on the road?

Find out in the next adventure synopsis #7!

GM Notes:

In regards to Renee's injury, I described the damage as how it appeared to the Riley, and passed her a somewhat lengthy note describing the impact and blinding pain, and the panicking feel of her mouth filling with blood that threatened to choke her with every breath.

I tried to play it up to the wire about the seriousness of her injury, leaving her condition a cliff hanger to be resolved in the next session, even going so far as to casually remind people to bring along extra blank char sheets for next session “just in case.” (The suspense got everyone at the table next session a good hour ahead of schedule too, not to mention a half dozen e-mails about the game that week. lol)

Since Renee’s player was one of the first ones to show up that session I was able to take her aside and give her more details on her injuries and the in game consequences/result.

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Freetext

The blood of a dragon is vital in the creation of potions of longevity. The liver could used to cure any disease or ailment, while the heart could restore a PC to full and complete health, despite their age, or injury.